Compact-ultrasound developer SonoSite of Bothell, WA, has acquired LumenVu, a privately held company in Philadelphia that has developed a new technology for improving the accuracy of catheter placement.
Some 1.5 million peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC) are placed annually in the U.S., with a 27% failure rate. The high failure rate means that almost all PICC lines are checked with flat-panel digital radiography after insertion. Incorrectly placed PICC lines can lead to delayed treatment, clinical complications, patient discomfort, and additional expense, SonoSite noted.
LumenVu’s visualization system, which can be used at bedside in real-time, couples near infrared light with standard catheter technology. An optical fiber combined with a guidewire emits light as it is inserted into the patient, then a specialized camera captures light from the tip of the optical fiber, which is coupled with a standard catheter as it is advanced and positioned in the patient.
Images are projected in real-time onto a monitor placed at the patient’s bedside, SonoSite said. Once the catheter is correctly positioned, the guidewire with the optical fiber is removed and discarded.
SonoSite considers the LumenVu technology complementary to its own hand-carried ultrasound technology in placing catheters at bedside. The company plans to introduce products based on the LumenVu technology in late 2008.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writers
July 31, 2007
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SonoSite completes $200 million offering of notes, July 17, 2007
SonoSite to raise $150 million, July 11, 2007
SonoSite files claim against GE, July 5, 2007
SonoSite broadens SonoMB, June 13, 2007
GE files suit against SonoSite, May 17, 2007
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